Did reading numerous copy-pastes and long reads about mobile UX design make you sick? Well, we understand you, my friend. Therefore, straight to the point. Below we have compiled basic mobile design rules in one place. Just save this article and use it as a checklist every time you start designing a new mobile app or website.
Let’s find out what rules will help even a beginner to create top-notch mobile UX design.
Rule #1: conduct the end-to-end research
Even if you have already created dozens of projects for a specific business niche, each time it should be accompanied by in-depth marketing research. Therefore, before creating a layout, draw up a portrait of the client and the corresponding user-flow maps. This way you can ensure maximum intuitiveness. By the way, the FlowMapp tool can help you with this.
Rule #2: focus on the most important
You should understand that the uniqueness of the user experience isn’t identical to its diversity. We mean that to create something recognizable, many UX designers accompany the user interface with unnecessary functionality. As a result, the entry level turns out higher and it becomes more difficult for beginners to adapt to using it intuitively. Just remember: minimalism is your best friend.
Rule #3: explore the technology stack used for your project
When mobile concepts like AMP and PWA come into play, it’s important to understand that this should also be reflected in user interface design. For example, in the first case, you can use CSS3 without any restrictions. As for the second, you will have to think through scenarios where push notifications are appropriate and user device hardware is used.
Rule #4: provide intuitive navigation for the main elements of the project
Don’t forget that it can be difficult for beginners to navigate even in interfaces with extremely minimalistic functionality. That’s why we recommend leaving additional hints that encourage the next steps towards achieving the user’s goal. Otherwise, your solution may be useless for those users who don’t want to spend a lot of time reading manuals.
Rule #5: deliver the best user experience on the touch plane
Even though humanity has been using touch screens to interact with mobile applications for more than a decade, some principles for creating their interfaces remain outdated. For example, instead of making swiping convenient by simulating the usual flipping of paper pages, some designers still create navigation buttons. This is not a very convenient solution.
Rule #6: take care of the typography
Styling the mobile app or website is, of course, great. At the same time, this isn’t a reason to neglect the convenience of reading text instructions. Therefore, before creating a fancy design and using non-standard fonts and text block layout, consider whether all this will increase the entry threshold for users.
Rule #7: provide seamless feedback
Create an interface in such a way that it responds with some kind of reaction to any user action. This will help them understand whether they are moving along the path to achieving the target action. Conversely, the lack of feedback leaves some users confused.
Rule #8: eliminate the need to type regularly
The constant need for user input is unlikely to play into your hands. Sometimes it’s just inconvenient, sometimes — very annoying. Whatever the final reactions of your users to this, remember that the fewer input fields, the better.
Rule #9: deliver a multi-device user experience
It’s unlikely that the success of a particular design solution can be assessed by a couple of reviews from the focus group representatives. Instead, testing is much better done with the help of special emulators, which not only repeat the typical steps of various target audience groups but also simulate their actions on various devices.
Rule #10: don’t forget about live testing
Along with testing on emulators, it is also important to test on live representatives of the target audience. This way you can get useful feedback (in addition to multi-device testing, of course), which you can then use to optimize the existing template.
Rule #11: create a stylish splash screen
Obviously, since the splash screen is the user’s “first impression” when using an app or website for the first time, it’s important to think of it in such a way that it looks cool. This can be done, for example, with the help of colorful, original animation.
Rule #12: minimize the number of registration steps
Instead of thinking through the steps for registering in an application or website from scratch, it’s much better to use proven methods that are familiar to every user. For example, you can invite users to register through social networks or Gmail.
Rule #13: don’t bombard users with permission messages to access their personal data
Although today software developers are massively practicing GDPR, it’s important to understand where the golden mean is. That’s why the next time you design a user interface layout that uses personal data, think about it: perhaps it makes sense to request access rights only at the beginning of using an application or website.
Rule #14: think about cross-platform
The fact that the implementation of interfaces from platform to platform shouldn’t differ much visually is obvious. It’s just not clear how to implement this when you have two separate solutions for different platforms. That is why it’s much better to try to create a universal design for all platforms at once.
Rule #15: provide a positive tone even in negative scenarios
In addition to the positive outcome of using the created interface, it’s also very important to consider the negative ones when something doesn’t work or went wrong. In particular, even if your potential user is forced to uninstall your mobile application, he or she can receive a reassuring notification that, for example, the team of the development company loves absolutely all of their users.
Rule #16: offer users instant payments
If your application or website is part of the e-commerce sector, you can hardly think of anything better than just implementing the possibility of instant payments. Voila! Your users will start making more purchases from the first day of updates.
Rule #17: remember about security
Sometimes design creates a security gap, ranging from ill-conceived sign-in forms to biometrics. Stop shifting all the responsibility to the developers! Just think about what you would do to hack your app or website if you were a hacker and try to avoid these situations when designing your mockups.
Rule #18: prefer text indicators
Have you ever noticed that some of the icons that indicate what users need to do look ambiguous? That’s why it’s better to use textual progress indicators where it’s possible.
Rule #19: balance the number of push notifications
To ensure background user interaction, some developers begin to abuse pop-up messages. As a result, users get annoyed very soon. Naturally, there is no question of advanced user experience in such situations.
Rule #20: provide top personalization
Offer the user enough options so that he or she can adapt the interface to their individual needs. Among the basic settings are font size and type, theme, sound effects, etc. As a result, you will quickly see how your target audience’s loyalty to your project will increase.
Conclusion
Dear friend, we hope we have helped you understand the basics of mobile design, and now you are on the right track. So, good luck!
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